How’s Your Client Service?

The following post is at:http://theinspiredsolo.com/psychology-of-inspiration/hows-your-client-service-as-good-as-this"The Inspired Solo Blog" by Sheryl Sisk Schelin.(We were totaly floored by your beautiful words - Thank you Sheryl!)

How’s Your Client Service?As Good As This? By Sheryl | May 5, 2008

I’m veering off the law path with this one but I think there’s a story here for solo lawyers, too.

So, I paint. A little and not well, but I enjoy it a lot. I haven’t done it in awhile though, and my supplies were nonexistent. So I shopped around online for a new source. I found Madison Art.

I picked out some paper for my watercolors — my usual medium. But then I noticed these table easels, and I thought, “What an awesome idea — I could use these in the office on the other side of the desk, so I could catch the light.”

(For those of you who don’t know, I enjoy the very special gift of a huge home office that used to be a huge sitting room on the backside of my late mom’s house on the banks of the Intracoastal Waterway. It’s 90% window, which means I get awesome light, and one of the few undeveloped views of the banks on the opposite side of the water.)

Then I saw these sets that included table easels — particularly this one that included oil paints. And that brought back art lessons of my childhood, and I thought, “Ooh. Yes.” And I bought one, along with some turpenoid and a wooden palette.

I got a fairly prompt shipping notice (within 48 hours or so), and about five business days later, the package arrived. Unfortunately, when I opened the box, what I found was a palette and a watercolor table top easel set, not an oil one. No turpenoid, no paper.

Oopsie.

So, I emailed the store promptly and explained the situation. What I got back, almost immediately was “We’ll straighten it out, immediately.”

A few hours later, I got a new shipping notice in my email inbox, followed within 24 hours by another note from the store telling me that the missing items — the oil table top easel set, the turpenoid, and the paper — were on their way. And the watercolor set I’d been shipped by mistake?

“Keep it.”

OK, so obviously I’m a fan of Madison Art for life now. Even if I were to find a lower price on a needed supply somewhere else, I can state that right now I’d fully prefer to deal with Madison Art.

What was it that converted me from casual purchaser to fangirl? Was it just the “keep it”? I have to be honest, that’s part of it. It’s way cool to have more watercolors (though I don’t really need two table easels).

But it’s more than that. It’s the whole of how I was treated, and how they responded to the error. Promptly, with a real apology — which always consists of three parts:

1. Recognition of the wrong (”This is my error”)2. The apology (”I’m sorry that happened”)3. The fix (”Here’s what I’ve done to make it right”)

Look, everybody makes mistakes — even lawyers and great internet art stores. It’s how we deal with them — make them right, make the affected party whole again — that’s what people remember and judge us on, and rightly so.

And if you want to exercise your inner visual artist I know a great place to get supplies.